Heretofore, packaging of lobster in buyer-friendly containers having a good visibility of the product has been virtually unknown as the shells of the lobster by virtue of their shape and shells made it inappropriate to vacuum seal the product in marketable packaging for retail use. It has not been previously known to have a lobster product that could be microwaved in the same container as packaged.
With vacuum packaging of lobster, there has been past concern with the potential of mold, yeast, bacteria, especially botulism. Processes have been tried before with other seafood to eliminate the threat of botulism. Examples of such processes are nitrogen flushing and radiation. Notwithstanding these attempts success has not previously been obtainable, with packaging lobster because of problems associated with the integrity of the packaging leading to health issues such as botulism.
Further, with prior packaging, consumers have not been able to microwave lobster in its shipping and sales package. Such product could not be found in the marketplace.
An example of vacuum packaging technique of food stuffs generally is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,473,866. A seafood vacuum pack system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,835,942 but this patent teaches away from the subject invention by virtue of a stacking technique used at the periphery of the packages. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,507 teaches the use of a "protruding-up curved section" of a case which is also contrary to the subject invention.